OverFlow

By: Ethan Dillon

"Keep moving everyone! We gotta get this stuff in the truck before the storm hits!" Johnson exclaims over the howling wind. It was the time of the OverFlow, when the icebergs in the north and the south melted. All of the ice and snow that melted, flowed freely into the ocean where the waters rose and flooded the world itself. "Do we really have to move all this stuff?" I shout. Johnson turns slowly to look at me, I can see the hatred in his eyes as he jumps off the truck and walks over to me with the anger of an infuriated bull. As he grabs the collar of my shirt and lifts me a foot into the air and says "Do you wanna die kid?" He spits the last word in my face. "No." I barely say. "Good. Now, get back to work!" He says and he throws me to the ground with such force that a normal man will have broken a few bones, but I'm not normal. I was genetically modified in the GMWP (Genetically Modified Weapons Plant). Yes, I know, Weapons? I was specifically created for World War III but ever since the OverFlow all people really cared about was surviving. The good thing is that the nanites in my body heal things five times faster than a normal human would in weeks. As I struggle to stand I groan at the effort but I can already feel the nanites patching up by skin and in at least an hour I will have healed completely. The only thing that could really hurt me is a train so it's only a scratch. As I shuffle toward the boxes of food, I think 'Why not just run?' Funny thing, if I ran his goons would hunt me down possibly even kill me if they needed to so that was a bad idea. After an hour of loading boxes, it's time to go. "Everyone in the Hummers! Oh, Mike!" "What?" I ask cautiously. I automatically knew something was up. "Can you make sure we got everything?" He says evilly. "No, need. I already checked. Twice." says Harper flatly. Harper is an old man in his sixties that tried very hard to become my friend when I came into the group for the first time as a survivor.

He took care of me when I was hurt but was not surprised when my cuts healed in minutes. He said "You were made to survive and that is what you'll do, but you must do it with caution for not everyone you come across will help you." He became my only true friend through all of this as well as Nafel. She was a young girl who helped me with everything and was the brother of Johnson but she couldn't always tell him to stop picking on me, so I took that upon myself. "Fine." says Johnson with a look of hate on his face. The only reason Johnson hates me is because when I came into camp I tripped on a rock and landed on his tent. Guess he couldn't stand the humiliation. As I hop into the Hummer there is a slight change in the air. Then it hits me. Boom Vines. "EVERYBODY GET OUT NOW!" I yell. While everyone is scrambling out of the Hummer, the Vines expand. Nafel. She gets her shirt stuck on the door. I run toward her and everyone tells me to forget her, but the thing is I can't. I grab her, rip her shirt, and throw her twenty feet from the Hummer. "THOOM!" I'm overcome by darkness. I can't hear. I can't see. I can't feel. Am I dead? Slowly but surely I hear someone crying. It's Nafel. "Nafel." I mutter. She stops crying. "Mike? Mike. Mike! You're alive!" Then I finally see her, it looks like she's been crying for a long time. "Hey, it's okay everything's gonna be fine." "But you've broken thirteen bones, shattered a vertebrae, and fractured your skull!" "I'll be fine. Trust me." I say with a mischievous glint in my eye. "Okay. Sure. Fine. I trust you. Don't die on me now, okay?" She says in a bossy and caring tone." "Yes'mam!" I say heartily. "Wait. Why were the Vines here. The Vines only grow in cold temperatures, temperatures below freezing. The Climate Shift shoulda killed them all off unless…" "The Evolution Gene!" We say unison. "Wait. Wasn't it destroyed?" She questions. "Yes, but it's likely that it evolved itself. It could've become airborne. If it became airborne then some of the things on earth must evolve in order for it to evolve further.

That means that we might evolve too." "Um, isn't that like…bad?" "Well it's good and bad. If it reaches us it could be good, but it could also be bad. It could evolve into a virus that will kill us and spread. But I won't let that happen. Here, hand me that knife." When she hands me the knife I tell her "Give me your hand." She hesitates. I nod. When she gives me her hand I cut over the veins in her wrist and she yelps. I cut mine and press mine against hers. "My blood has nanites that can heal up to five times faster than normal so that cut will heal in minutes. You will have greater strength, sense of heat signatures, the ability to see in the dark, sharper hearing, vision, and smell, be alerted of danger, and you can slow your heart rate. Any questions?" "Why heart rate?" "You can slow your heart down to one beat per minute, so when someone shoots you or wounds you they will check your pulse to see if you're alive or not and when they do you can slow it down so that they think you're dead. Got it?" "Yeah, got it." Hey, where's Harper?" Now that I'm thinking about it, why hasn't he come to see if I'm okay? "He's almost dead Mike." "What do you mean dead?" Now that I'm scared, I can sense all of the heat signatures around me. There's one that's weak. "He was also hit by the explosion, Mike." She says sadly. "No. No. NO!" When I take a step, I immediately collapse with effort. "If I can't walk, I'll crawl." As I drag myself toward what I think is Harper, everyone stares at me in surprise. "W-w-we thought you were dead!" says Johnson, shocked. "Yeah well, I can't die that easily. Where is he? Harper?" "On his deathbed." says Derby. Derby has been known to state the obvious. "WHERE IS HE!" I shout and everyone cowers. "H-he's in there." says Twit and points to the right of the tent. I pull over the flap, I see him. He's lost an arm, both legs, has lost all his hair, and is burnt terribly on his left side. I dash to his side saying "Harper? Harper? Harper, wake up buddy." "Let me die Mike, I want to die." Harper begs weakly. "Okay." I cry as he slowly slips into The Void of The Everlasting. That is the ending of the world, for Mike made his grief into a flood that killed all.